Police
Charge MDC Leader for Threatening to Commit Murder

Harare, October
20, 2012- Police last Thursday charged Julius Magarangoma, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party chairperson for Manicaland Province for
allegedly threatening to commit murder, almost two years after the offence
was allegedly committed.

Detectives from the Law and Order Section at
Mutare Central Police Station on Thursday charged Magarangoma with
contravening Section 186 (1) (b) as read with Section 47 of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act.The police alleged that the MDC provincial
chairperson, who reported to the police station in the company of his lawyer
Blessing Nyamaropa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights threatened to kill
Mutizwa Mhondiwa for mobilizing and sending some people to destroy his
homestead in Buhera.The police said the incident took place on October 1,
2010 at Manyadza homestead, in Mhondiwa village under Chief Chitsunge in
Buhera.Magarangoma was released after the police recorded a warned and
cautioned statement and advising that they will proceed by way of summons if
they intend to pursue the matter.Meanwhile, Beitbridge Magistrate
Gwineth Drawo on Thursday acquitted 12 MDC officials, who had been on trial
for contravening the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).The MDC
officials were arrested in February and charged with contravening Section 26
of POSA after they held an internal party meeting at some private premises
in the border town of Beitbridge, which the police charged was
“unauthorized”.Magistrate Drawo acquitted the MDC officials after their
lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of ZLHR applied for discharge at the close of the State
case, which had been opposed by State prosecutor Jabulani Mberesi.

Zimbabwe bans 15 for
match-fixing

Zimbabwe has slapped lifetime
bans on 15 players, officials and journalists after an investigation into
corruption. Above, Zimbabwe batsman Craig Ervine, hits a shot during a match
against Kenya. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

ZIMBABWE'S football federation has given lifetime bans to 15 players,
officials and journalists for match-fixing and
corruption.

The Zimbabwe Football Association, or ZIFA, said its
former chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya was among those banned after he was
accused of masterminding match-fixing during Asian tours in 2009.

Others included former national team captain Method
Mwanjale, and the country's most decorated coach Sunday Chidzambwa.

ZIFA said that 16 players and officials were cleared
of any wrongdoing in matches rigged by an Asian betting syndicate linked to
Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal, who has been jailed in Finland.

During the Asian tours, Zimbabwe lost 6-0 to Syria,
and 3-0 to Thailand.

Coltart
asks AG to prosecute match fixers

SPORTS Minister David Coltart has called on
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General Johannes Tomana
to initiate criminal proceedings against football players and administrators
involved in the Asiagate scandal.

An official report said national
team matches were fixed by ex-ZIFA officials along with convicted
match-fixer Wilson Perumal between 2007 and 2009.

ZIFA announced on
Friday that 15 players and officials – including the decorated former
Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chidzambwa and ex-ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya – had
been banned for life from all football activities.

Over 50 other players
and officials will, in the coming weeks, learn of their punishments which
will range from suspensions of six months to 10 years, say
officials.

On Saturday, Sports Minister Coltart said prosecutions must
follow.“I fully support ZIFA's decision to serve life bans on various
players and administrators responsible for what is undoubtedly the most
shameful chapter of Zimbabwe's sporting history,” Coltart.

“I trust
that the Police and the Attorney General will now act quickly to investigate
and prosecute those identified. If they don’t, then their offices will also
be tainted by this scandal.

“I have no doubt that the football loving
public expects that those responsible for criminal activity should face the
full wrath of the law.”

An independent panel chaired by retired High
Court judge Ahmed Ebrahim identified systematic corruption after Perumal
burrowed his way into the heart of Zimbabwean football.

Justice
Ebrahim said in Rushwaya and other senior officials including ZIFA
programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana and football agent Kudzai Shabba,
Singapore national Perumal found willing participants in his
corruption.

Players – including the former captain Method Mwanjali now of
Sundowns in South Africa, former CAPS United goalkeeper Edmore Sibanda,
Dynamos defender Guthrie Zhokinyi, Kaizer Chiefs defender Thomas Sweswe and
Danisa Phiri – dragged their teammates along as they assumed a central role
in the corruption in which they were paid to lose matches. They will never
play football again, ZIFA said.

Journalists were not spared by the
corruption. Robson Sharuko, editor of the country’s biggest daily newspaper
– the Herald – and former Sunday Mail reporter Hope Chizuzu, who was now
working for the Premier League side Monomotapa, were also banned.

The
Herald had previously said it would stand by Sharuko until Justice Ebrahim
delivered his final report. On Saturday, his weekly column was missing from
the newspaper, fuelling speculation he may have been suspended or
sacked.

ZIFA says it will, in the coming weeks, release the names of
players who will be suspended over the scandal in batches.The next
release will be for players and officials banned for 10 years, followed by
those who face a five-year layoff, then three years, two years and finally
those suspended for less than a year.

FIFA and the Confederation of
African Football say ZIFA’s sanctions will be given global effect, ensuring
that the named individuals are blacklisted worldwide.

MDC-T
fights over candidate imposition

THE race for Parliament and council seats
ahead of the forthcoming general elections has ripped Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T apart, with factions fighting for
supremacy.

Factionalism in the party has resurfaced as jockeying
intensifies with different camps, fighting for supremacy. There is a camp
which is fielding young cadres and academics, which enjoys the support of
younger leaders like Tendai Biti while Tsvangirai is using his former trade
union colleagues to continue with his hold on the party, sources close to
the ground say.

Women and youth assembly members are being roped in the
factionalism.

According to sources, the factions have been fighting for
turf for months, as evidenced by the splits and violent clashes that
characterised provinces such as Bulawayo, Masvingo, Manicaland and
Mashonaland East.

The party is yet to firmly deal with the issue of
internal violence driven by factionalism despite public promises to do
so.

Sources said the infighting had intensified across provinces in
recent weeks due to the race to get the party ticket for next year’s
elections.

A new front in the war has been opened as well.

A
directive from the MDC-T’s national executive that incumbent councillors and
MPs will not be contested in primary elections to choose party candidates
ahead of the watershed polls that could be held in June 2013 has raffled
feathers in the young party.

Aspiring candidates are uncomfortable with
the directive barring them from contesting sitting MPs and councillors as
they feel it protects failed and corrupt office bearers.

They feel
Tsvangirai’s band of top leaders is abusing high office to protect
themselves from internal democracy.

MDC-T deputy spokesperson Joel
Gabbuza confirmed that sitting MPs will walk to the general elections
unopposed.

“In the constituencies where we have incumbent MPs and
councillors, we will delay the process of primary elections because we
already have persons elected by the electorate,” said Gabbuza.

“We do
not want to disrupt the work they have done. So we are going to be starting
in the constituencies where we do not have representatives. In those
constituencies people can start running around canvassing for support,”
said Gabuzza.

The MDC-T’s decision not to hold primary elections has left
the party that was formed in 1999 deeply divided with some people who have
been in the trenches for the past 13 years feeling that this is a form of
candidate imposition — a phenomenon copied from Zanu PF.

Zanu PF,
however, appears to be changing tact and has announced that apart from
President Robert Mugabe, every other official will have to fight it
out.

The move by the MDC-T not to hold primary elections in more than
90 constituencies has been picked by the party rivals as undemocratic but
Gabbuza said the party will not deviate from its “democratic”
practices.

“We are not going to impose candidates on our supporters. What
is happening at the moment is that our election directorate is working on
the procedure to elect candidates. They are fine-tuning the resolution of
our congress on elections,” said Gabbuza.

Aspiring candidates say the
majority of sitting MDC-T MPs and councillors have failed to deliver and
have joined the gravy train and therefore should make way for fresh
blood.

Even though Tsvangirai’s party has taken steps to bring sanity to
towns it leads by expelling councillors deemed to be corrupt, many feel the
action is incomplete and should net all councillors who are enjoying a
rags-to-riches lifestyle and targeting the small fish.

Gabbuza, who
also has been an MP for more than a decade now, defended the decision by his
colleagues not to step down and allow others to take over.

“There is no
provision in our party constitution which says a member should have served a
certain number of years for him to step down from being a councillor or MP,”
said Gabbuza.

U.S:
Zimbabwe Minister Should Disclose Diamond Sales

Observers have dismissed as suspicious remarks by
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu that at least $20 million in diamond sales linked
to companies on targeted sanctions has been impounded by the United States
and its allies.

They said there is no tangible evidence that diamond
sales generated by Mbada Diamonds and Marange Resources have been targeted
by America, Britain and other nations which imposed sanctions on President
Robert Mugabe and his inner circle.

Project manager Melanie Chiponda
of Chiadzwa Community Development Trust said it is difficult to prove
Mpofu’s allegations due to lack of transparency in the mining of the gems in
Manicaland Province.

“There is a lot of activity in Marange and we
believe that those companies are making a lot of money through diamond
sales,” said Chiponda.

Sharon Hudson-Dean, public affairs counselor of
the U.S. Embassy in Harare said companies mining diamonds in Marange are
shortchanging Zimbabweans.

“We believe that Mr. Mpofu and the people that
he works with in terms of keeping trace of diamond sales and revenues should
be transparent about the process and should disclose exactly what the sales
are,” said Hudson-Dean.

The minister said Zimbabwe is now unlikely to
earn the projected $600 million in diamond revenues as a result of the
sanctions and depressed international prices of the gems.

UN: Southern Africa Food Shortages
Worsen

Oct 20, 9:52 AM EDT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- The United Nations deputy
humanitarian chief says food shortages are "a chronic problem" in southern
Africa and more than 5.5 million people in eight countries need aid this
year, a 40 percent increase compared to 2011.

Catherine Bragg,
winding up a five-day southern Africa trip Saturday, said worsening food
shortages are the result of drought or floods and rising world food
prices.

In Zimbabwe, 1.6 million people are affected by food shortages
and many rural families have begun selling village livestock, often kept as
a symbol of status and wellbeing, to cope with the "dire situation," Bragg
said.

A decade of seizures of commercial farms has disrupted food
production in Zimbabwe, a former regional breadbasket.

Food shortages
are also particularly acute in Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland, Bragg said.

Sekai
Holland to receive Sydney Peace Prize

2012 Senator Sekai
HollandSenator Mrs. Sekai Holland Co Minister for Reconciliation Healing and
Integration in the Cabinet of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai was announced as the recipient of the 2012 Sydney Peace
Prize, in a ceremony hosted by the Australian Embassy in Harare , Zimbabwe ,
April 30.

The Sydney Peace Prize jury’s citation reads: ‘ Sekai
Holland: for a lifetime of outstanding courage in campaigning for human
rights and democracy, for challenging violence in all its forms and for
giving such astute and brave leadership for the empowerment of
women.’

The announcement of the choice of Sekai Holland was made by Dr
Meredith Burgmann at a reception hosted by Australian Embassy in Harare on
Monday 30 April. Professor Stuart Rees, Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation
said, ‘In addition to her work for the education of rural women and her
founding of Australia’s anti Apartheid movement fifty years ago, Sekai
Holland has been a significant leader of non violent, democracy campaigns,
and is a key figure in her country’s national dialogue on how to heal the
deep wounds of social conflict.’

In response Senator Holland
commented, ‘This award comes as a wonderful surprise but one which is so
encouraging. I accept on behalf of the brave women I have worked with for so
many years and for my colleagues in our present Organ for National Healing
Reconciliation and Integration. I also acknowledge the long term support and
friendship which I have received from Australian Aboriginal campaigners for
human rights and for peace with justice.’

Sekai Holland will travel
to Australia in November to give the City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture in
the Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday November 7th and will receive the 2012
Peace Prize ($50,000 and a trophy crafted by the artist in glass Brian Hirst
) at a Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony on Thursday November
8th.

Tapping on the windows

Dear Family and Friends,There’s a constant
tapping on the windows at night, now that thefirst rains have fallen in
Zimbabwe. The reappearance of millions ofinsects after an absence of four
months is an attack on the senses.From the persistent whining of mosquitoes
that turn sideways anddisappear when you look for them, to the silent
ascension from thedepths of the earth of a million flying ants, the insects
are back. Avast array of airborne beetles, ranging from small shiny
browncreatures to large glossy black monsters with fearsome body
armour,horns and spiked legs, spend their nights pinging against lights
andtapping on windows. The natural aerial assault has added to the
manmade surprises and uncertainty that has overtaken Zimbabwe this
week.

It started with a visit from South Africa’s ex ANC youth
leaderJulius Malema who had apparently come to Zimbabwe to
‘meetprogressive forces’ and also to attend the wedding of a Zanu
PFyouth leader. Met at the airport by Zimbabwe’s minister of youth
andindigenisation, Malema was said to have been ‘whisked away,’
firstthrough the airport’s VIP section and then in a convoy of
fastmoving vehicles. Later, when Daily News reporters tried to
interviewMalema, his body guards whom the paper described as ‘heavily
builtgoons,’ manhandled the press photographer, forced him to
deletephotographs of Malema and then confiscated the camera’s memory
card.Speaking at the wedding he’d come to attend, Malema had
obviouslybeen taking lessons from us. He said that white South Africans
mustgive back land and minerals. Malema said that they would not pay
forthe land in South Africa when it was surrendered and the only
thingthey were scared of was defeat. ‘Seeing blood is not what we
arescared of as long as that blood delivers what belongs to us we
areprepared to go to that extent.’ It wasn’t clear who the ‘we’was that
Julius Malema referred to but they were frighteninglyfamiliar sentiments in
a country that has witnessed at first hand justhow easily radical rhetoric
becomes terrifying reality.

The next frighteningly familiar thing came in
the form of newspaperphotographs and TV video footage of houses being
knocked down bybulldozers in Epworth outside Harare. Disturbing images were
shown ofmen, women and children standing amidst the rubble and ruins of
theirhomes with all their worldly goods jumbled in heaps around
them:furniture, bedding, clothing, kitchen equipment and food. Hundreds
offamilies were affected by the demolitions and said they’d
beenallocated stands on the land a year ago by a couple of men they
calledZanu PF party leaders. Asked to comment on the allocation of stands
onprivately owned land, Zanu PF’s Harare province chairman, AmosMidzi,
said: “we have no policy whatsoever to take over privateproperty anywhere in
Harare.' It was the most ironic statement aftertwelve years of private
property seizures.

Then came the warning made by Zanu PF spokesman Rugare
Gumbo who wasbeing interviewed by a South African TV channel. Gumbo said
that ifZanu PF lost the next election it would be ‘messy.’ Gumbo
saidthat events such as had taken place in Libya and were still
takingplace in Syria, could happen in Zimbabwe. ‘There will be
deaths.People could be killed and maimed,’ he said. It wasn’t clear if
MrGumbo was representing his own position or that of Zanu PF but it
alladds to the fear factor that increases as we draw ever closer to
aconstitutional referendum and election. Until next time, thanks
forreading, love cathy 20th October 2012. Copyright � Cathy
Buckle.www.cathybuckle.com

An
unclear future creates an atmosphere of nervousness

Robert Mugabe resorted to his old socialist rhetoric when addressing
his supporters last week. Predicting a ‘blatantly God-given victory’, he
went on to condemn the opposition as ‘corrupt from top to bottom’ but then
he would say that, wouldn’t he – anything to deflect attention from his own
party’s misdeeds. Looking in from the outside, it seems that the country is
in a state of moral decline and that applies not only to political parties.
Uncertainty about the country’s future may be the explanation for this state
of affairs. Whichever way you look at it, no one is quite sure what the
future holds; elections, whenever they happen, always create uncertainty and
at 88 years of age, Mugabe’s future is limited. Love him or loathe him, the
man has been in power for so long that a whole generation has grown up
knowing nothing else but Mugabe and Zanu PF. The prospect of change and an
unclear future creates an atmosphere of nervousness and that, combined with
the political patronage that Mugabe has actively promoted, makes for an
attitude of ‘every man for himself’ that is fertile ground for corruption in
one form or another. As Simba Makoni declared recently, “Corruption should
be declared a national disaster.”

The victory of his old friend,
Hugo Chavez, in the recently held elections, Mugabe told his supporters, was
‘a win for the people of Venezuela’. That sounds like an endorsement of the
democratic process from the president, so it was oddly contradictory to hear
one of his ministers, Patrick Chinamasa, in a BBC interview saying that Zanu
PF would not accept an MDC win. “There will be trouble” Chinamasa prophesied
and when asked what exactly he meant by that, he eventually replied, “We
will not accept it”. So much for tolerance and acceptance of different
political views that Mugabe has recently been advocating; it seems that
Mugabe’s Justice Minister is not following the same agenda as his master.
Like his master, however, Chinamasa was careful to put the blame for any
possible MDC victory on the ‘imperialists’ who are always blamed for any
independent thinking on the part of the ‘masses’. Clearly Zanu PF and its
higher echelons have a pretty low opinion of the ordinary Zimbabwean
people’s ability to think for themselves. In another interview, this time
with a South African tv station, the president’s spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo
threatened a ‘bloodbath’ if Zanu PF loses the election. These repeated
threats of violence if they lose the election show very clearly that Zanu
PF’s belief in democracy is paper-thin: violence is their preferred method
of persuasion.

Right on cue, in comes another hothead, South African
Julius Malema who is given a red-carpet welcome by Zanu PF. (Incidentally
the rumours of personal corruption have not left Malema untouched either) He
says he only went to Zimbabwe to attend a wedding but that didn’t prevent
him from making a most un-wedding like speech! Zimbabwe under Zanu PF has
been “an inspiration to Africa” he said and went on to castigate whites who
should surrender their minerals and land without compensation. As for
Tsvangirai, declared Malema, he is an ally of imperialists. Once again we
see that anyone who disagrees with the party line is automatically condemned
as a lackey of the imperialists, not capable of thinking for themselves. In
true ‘celebrity’ fashion, Malema brought his own body-guards with him and
they proceeded to beat up journalists who tried to photograph their boss.
This cult of celebrity is prevalent in Zimbabwe too, as the increasing
number of cases of people charged with ‘insulting the president’ reveals.
Now, as if to place him even higher in the ‘hero’ class, we hear that
Mugabe’s original house in Highfield is to become a National Monument where
visitors will presumably be treated to a lecture on Mugabe’s ‘heroic’ life;
his burial plot having already been reserved at Heroes Acre.

It
was Malema’s attitude to white people that most closely chimed with the
Zimbabwean president’s own views. Mugabe’s latest comment about whites may
have been intended for a partisan audience at home but they reveal the
duplicity of a man who willingly takes funding from European based NGOs but
never fails to insult the owners of the white hands that feed his people. “A
lion eats flesh,” he said, “and you can never trust it with your sheep no
matter how passive that lion is. Trust white people at your own peril.”
Coming as it does from the head of state, this thoroughly racist remark
reveals the depths to which Mugabe will sink to win popularity, as he
believes, with ‘the masses’.

Constitution Watch of 20th October [Second All Stakeholders Conference Programme]

CONSTITUTION WATCH
2012

[20th October
2012]

Second
All Stakeholders’ Conference Programme

Sunday
21st – Tuesday 23rd October

Conference
Programme

Day 1: Sunday 21st
October: Arrival of Delegates

There will be no
Conference meetings on Sunday 21st October.Out-of-town delegates will arrive and settle in at their various hotels
so that all everyone will be ready for a punctual early start of the Conference
proper at the Harare International Conference Centre [Rainbow Towers] the
following morning.Delegates can get
details of accommodation from COPAC Head Office, 31 Lawson Avenue, Milton
Park, Harare, phone Harare 703268 and 702529 or on the cellphone number of the
COPAC officer assigned to their province: Manicaland 0775 605 312; Mashonaland
East 0772 252 272; Mashonaland West 0772 926 962; Mashonaland Central 0773 369
622; Harare Province 0773 098 047; Matabeleland North 0772 854 110; Matabeleland
South 0772 423 428; Midlands 0775 359 332; Masvingo 0712 782 225;Bulawayo 0774 032 657.

Day 2: Monday 22nd
October: Conference Begins

8 amDelegates to be seated

8.30 – 9 amArrival of invited
guests

9 amProceedings commence with
National Anthem followed by introduction by Minister of Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs

The
morning is available if there is unfinished business carried over from
Monday.

Conference
Documents

·A
copy of the COPAC draft constitution. Delegates and observers were given this on
accreditation.They
will receive the other promised documents before the start of the Conference on
Monday:

·National
Statistical Report[see
details below]

·And
documents agreed among the 3 GPA parties provided to the
drafters:

oConstitutional
principles

oList
of agreed constitutional Issues and points to be covered.

oGap-filling
document –identifying
gaps in information collected during the outreach and indicating
how they should be dealt with.

Security
at the Conference

The
COPAC co-chairs assured Friday morning’s press briefing that arrangements had
been made to ensure strict maintenance of security at the conference.Security personnel would be present both in
uniform and in plain clothes.

Delegates
Code of Conduct

Every
accredited delegate has been required to sign an undertaking to abide by a Code
of Conduct framed by COPAC in an effort to prevent the sort of rowdy behaviour
that had marred the First All Stakeholders’ Conference in 2009.The Codeprohibits
disorderly, riotous and unbecoming behaviour, abusive language and gestures,
heckling and interjecting, and other disruptive conduct.Breaches of the Code may result in expulsion
from the Conference and forfeiture of any allowances payable for
attendance.

International
and National Observers and Press

COPAC
has also kept to their assurance that international – mostly from embassies –
and some national observers will be able to monitor the conference and these
have been accredited.Limited
accreditation of media also took place – marred by complaints about the limited
numbers and method of allocation for media representatives, with free-lance
journalists being turned away initially and some media houses being told they
were too small to warrant registration.Despite one of the COPAC co-chairs being called in to try and sort things
out, journalists are complaining that they should not be restricted in covering
what is a national event of great general interest. Nevertheless, the presence of observers and
even limited media will assist in deterring potential disruptions.

Accreditation
Process

Accreditation
of Conference delegates and observers largely proceeded smoothly, starting on
16th October.The accreditation process
itself was well organised, comfortable, and courteous.There were only short queues and the actual
process took only two or three minutes, after which one walked away with a
Conference ID complete with photograph and a copy of the COPAC draft
constitution.

Unfortunately
on the last day there were hitches and delays caused by the restricted number of
media places[see
above]and
the continuing disagreement between COPAC and some civil society networks and
organisations.Trouble was largely as a
result of political parties having already nominated “their” NGOs to attend the
Conference.There were also accusations
that names had been substituted or dropped from NGO lists.This caused delays and confusion at the COPAC
offices on 19th October, resulting in some would-be delegates still not being
accredited.
NGOs meeting in Harare to prepare for the
Conference wrote to President Zuma complaining that NGO participation would be
limited and not inclusive.Apart from
this highly unsatisfactory aspect, still not resolved at the time of writing, on
the whole, in comparison with the First All Stakeholders’ Conference, COPAC
deserves credit for a better-organised process.

On
Thursday 18th October Justice Hlatshwayo gave the go-ahead for the Stakeholders
Conference.In a last-minute application
businessman Danny Musukuma had asked the court to prevent the Conference going
ahead until COPAC had published its National Statistical Report in the
press.COPAC explained to the judge that
it had in fact published the report on its website some time ago – well before
the application was lodged, and thatit
had already arranged to supply the report to all Conference delegates before the
start of the Conference.Mr Musukuma and
COPAC then agreed to the judge issuing an order as
follows:

·the
Conference would go ahead

·COPAC
must ensure the distribution of hard copies of the report to the 10
provincial administrators’ offices countrywide by midday Saturday 20th October
for people to photocopy it.[Note: the COPAC co-chairs gave an assurance at a press briefing on
Friday morning that this would be done - [Note:
The Short version of the National Statistical Report has almost 2000 pages.]

·COPAC
must by 10 am on 19th October release a Press statement informing the public through the national
and other media that the National Statistical Report is accessible on its
website www.copac.org.zw[Note: this was done.See
below about accessing documents on the website.]

·Mr
Musukuma must be given a copy of the report [Note:
this has been done].

The
COPAC Website

The
Conference documents:The
Conference documents may be downloaded from the COPAC website www.copac.org.zwMost of these documents are on the website’s
“Conference” page, so click on the link to that page, where you will
find:

·two
versions of the National Statistical Report, both of them very large pdf
documents – version 1 over 11 MB, and version 2 over 30 MB [see
below for a note on these two versions]

·the
COPAC draft constitution as handed to delegates – i.e. with each page signed by
all three co-chairs –2 MB pdf
document

·the
drafting instruments – i.e., what COPAC provided to the three lead drafters – a
7 MB pdf document.

A
chance to comment on the COPAC draft via the COPAC website: It
is not too late for those not attending the Stakeholders’ Conference to submit
comments on the COPAC draft constitution for consideration by COPAC.This can be done through the website – www.copac.org.zw – by clicking on the “Draft
Constitution” tab and then clicking on whichever of the 18 chapters of the
Constitution you are interested in.The
text of the chapter will then open on your screen and you will see that
immediately under the text of each section there is an invitation to “Add a new
comment”.

Note
on Version 1 and Version 2 of the National Statistical
Report

Why
are there two versions of the National Statistical Report?The foreword to the National Statistical
Report explains this in some detail and demonstrates how the two versions are
linked to the debate over quantitative and qualitative methodologies that caused
delays in the preparation of district and provincial reports on the
outreach.“The Select Committee resolved that both the statistics (quantitative)
and the qualitative aspects of the outcomes (for example meeting atmosphere and
others) must be taken into account in deciding what would eventually go into the
constitution. The interpretation of these statistics therefore has to take into
account these limitations in the methodology used.Whilst a high frequency was a general guide,
that in itself was not the sole determinant of the importance of an issue enough
to find its way into the Draft Constitution that has been produced.It is for this reason that the Select
Committee adopted two versions of interpreting the final data:
Version1 theNational Statistical Report, which aggregates
the outcomes in each ward and expresses that as a percentage of all the wards in
the country, and Version2 the Provincial
Statistical Reports, which basically indicate how an issue fared per each
province without subjecting it to the outcomes of other
provinces.”

Veritas makes every effort to ensure
reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information
supplied